Feels good to help out when ever you can… Ah Dan…
I used to turn to tip at Leads in my Transmondo Volvo and if the mood took me I’d just speak Italian to the office staff… Well you have to have some kind of entertainment… some of them would try and reply in school boy French … usually asking me what time it was… or would I go to bed with them…Always good for a laugh…
Jeff…
What I do when I get a cold caller phoning me up and talking about the accident that I did not have two years ago, or the P.P.I. that I never paid, I start speaking Russian.
They soon hang up !
Dirty Dan:
Was at my Local Volvo workshop this morning just to have cup of coffey and a chat. When the guy behind the desk said. Danne! Sure you speak russian and burst out laughing. There was an russian FH from 2007 there and the driver didnt speak nothing els but russian… truck kaput he said. I didnt stay long enough to see what fault he had but when i came in this evning he had left.Danne
Just heard the news from Stockholm Danne. My thoughts are with you and all of the Swedish people.
It is only 2 weeks since it happened in London.
Hi Mick, I have sent you a PM. regards Jamie.
On one trip to the Ukraine, my reload was from an abatoir near Dnepropetrovsk. This plant like most others in russia was massive and also appeared to be laid out for the transport to be carried by rail. It was criss crossed with railway tracks and sideings but hardly a loading bay for trucks. The nearest i could get to the warehouse i was to load from must have been about thirty meters. was told to open up the side of the tilt and this gang of women appeared to load me, they formed a human chain and passed rolls of salted pig skins from one to the other from the warehouse to the trailer. The rest of the trip went fairly smooth to my delivery address in cambridgeshire. the pigskins were offloaded at a small farm where they were stacked very neatly on to pallets and containerised for export to China. (work that one out.I had just brought them back from half way there). I then dropped the trailer at CTRs depot in Slough for service. On opening up the tilt a few days later the fitter was badly bitten by the flees that had hatched out and was off work for a few days. No one tells you about the dangers involved with maggots and their offsprings.
Vodka Cola Cowboy:
Dirty Dan:
Was at my Local Volvo workshop this morning just to have cup of coffey and a chat. When the guy behind the desk said. Danne! Sure you speak russian and burst out laughing. There was an russian FH from 2007 there and the driver didnt speak nothing els but russian… truck kaput he said. I didnt stay long enough to see what fault he had but when i came in this evning he had left.Danne
Just heard the news from Stockholm Danne. My thoughts are with you and all of the Swedish people.
It is only 2 weeks since it happened in London.[/
Thanks for that mate! Its so sad one of the dead was a 11year old girl. But the swedes are sticking toghter now and on sunday it was a protest against terrorism in Stockholm and 45000 people came so they can scare us! Wonder were it will happend next,for it is going to happen somewere…
Danne
M&C Jamie:
Hi Mick, I have sent you a PM. regards Jamie.
Thanks Jamie. I will give you a ring later. Hope that you are well.
Red Square photographed from the bridge end - Circa 1990
Jazzandy:
Red Square photographed from the bridge end - Circa 1990
Hey, very nice, would be nice if you could do it today again with one restaured truck.
Eric,
Another shot of Red Square, taken at the best time of the year.
Yes, Eric. It would be great to take one of the old trucks back there. I often wonder what happened to my truck G 642 TKJ. I know that after I sold it an owner driver from Essex had it, doing U.K. work. I think he was working out of Tilbury. That is probably in Africa now.
Vodka Cola Cowboy:
0Another shot of Red Square, taken at the best time of the year.
Yes, Eric. It would be great to take one of the old trucks back there. I often wonder what happened to my truck G 642 TKJ. I know that after I sold it an owner driver from Essex had it, doing U.K. work. I think he was working out of Tilbury. That is probably in Africa now.
No, Tilbury is still in Essex…
Dipster:
Vodka Cola Cowboy:
Another shot of Red Square, taken at the best time of the year.Yes, Eric. It would be great to take one of the old trucks back there. I often wonder what happened to my truck G 642 TKJ. I know that after I sold it an owner driver from Essex had it, doing U.K. work. I think he was working out of Tilbury. That is probably in Africa now.
No, Tilbury is still in Essex…
Glad you told me that Dipster. Well spotted. I would have looked a right ■■■■ driving around the Sahara looking for Tilbury. (However, I actually meant my truck).
Just half way through your excellent book, can’t wait for the 2nd edition.
Reminds me why I got into this job, but never did all the exciting stuff, I had dreams, but you lived them, and now I’m reading them.
biggriffin:
Reminds me why I got into this job, but never did all the exciting stuff, I had dreams, but you lived them, and now I’m reading them.
Hi biggriffin. Glad that you are enjoying the book. I was lucky that I got into the business at the right time and had some good breaks getting onto the right firms. It is a shame that the opportunities are not there today.
In August 1991, I was the only British truck driver in Moscow during the whole of the anti-Gorbachev coup. The Russian people flocked to the White House, to defend it from the tanks of the Soviet army. I went to the White House, on the Tuesday just to see what was happening. Some of my Russian friends were there and I joined the crowd to listen to the speeches.
On the Monday I had seen Yeltsin, riding on top of a mobile crane leading supporters to the White House, along Kalinina. It was just after this that a Russian tried to attack me, on the Sadavoya Ring Road.
As I said, in my book, The Vodka Cola Cowboy, I defended myself with a small axe, smashing his fingers as he grabbed my mirror arm.
I then drove around, being sent all over the place by the police, until I made it to the Mezh’.
The picture of the tanks on the Leningrad Road, just outside of Moscow, are the ones that I passed on my way to Sheriametovo airport to deliver to Aeromar on the Monday morning. They rolled into Central Moscow on the Tuesday night to attack the defenders of the White House.
These tanks turned off of the Leningrad Road at Maikovskaya and rolled along the Sadovaya Inner ring road when they came to the underpass. Here, they killed three of the protesters, who were the only fatalities of the coup.
The place where I was attacked was just where this photo had been taken. On the other side of the underpass the protesters had de-railed trolley busses and used them to block the road.
Quite a “grim” situation to be in…
Cheers, Patrick
pv83:
Quite a “grim” situation to be in…Cheers, Patrick
Yes and No really Patrick. It was one of those times when something big was happening, that was out of your control.
The strange thing about the coup, in 1991, was that I arrived in Moscow on the Sunday 18th August. It had been my birthday on the previous Thursday, the 15th. I had been running up from Holland with two Croome drivers but had left them behind in Poland. That was because I wanted to get home to the flat in Moscow and they were in no great hurry.
I was pulling a fridge trailer loaded with food, for Aeromar at Sheriametovo airport. Obviously, the fridge was running so I had left the rig at the Mezh’. Although I could park my truck safely in our street, I never did if I had a running fridge. No need to upset the neighbours.
When we got up on the Monday morning the T.V. was blank and they were playing Swan Lake continuously. Elena kept saying “This is a bad day for my country”, but would not tell me why.
I went to the Mezh and took the truck out to Sheriametovo. That is when I passed the column of tanks, who were parked up just outside of the M.K.A.D. outer ring road.
At Aeromar the Russians kept saying that “It was a bad day for their country”, but no-one seemed to know why.
Having tipped at Aeromar, where I got a telephone call from Kepstowe, telling me to get out of the country a.s.a.p., I then had to drive back into Moscow to drop off some designs at Interunity. Zoya, at Interunity kept saying, “This is a bad day for my country”, but still no explanation why.
After this I saw Yeltsin, on top of the mobile crane, who passed right in front of me on Kalinina. Then the Russian guy tried to attack me before I drove away. This was followed by the Moscow Police sending me round in circles before I managed to get back to the Mezh’ and park up.
At the Mezh’ there were four Dutch trucks. One was Pickfords and my great mate Arri, from Gronningen. The other three were fridges, carrying Mars bars, from Holland. (Can you remember the name of the company that used to do the Mars work Patrick ?). The trucks were blue and white.
Having decided that I was not leaving Moscow and was going to see what was going to happen, I realised that if Kepstowe found out what I was doing, it would be a very bad day for me, never mind the Russians.
Van der Heijden in Veghel did Mars to and from Holland iirc.
